From the candy and school supply store she ran as a fifth-grader attending Clarion Limestone-Elementary School to a small business owner/operator, from legislative staffer to county commissioner, and now state representative elected to serve the people of the 63rd Legislative District, Donna Oberlander pledges to use her proven entrepreneurial and public sector experience to advance free market economic policies and traditional values to make Clarion and Armstrong counties an even better region to live, work and raise a family. 

Oberlander has been selected to serve on the Commerce, Gaming Oversight, Liquor Control and Professional Licensure committees for the 2011-12 legislative session.

Learn more on her Facebook page.

Recognizing that state government almost always has a choice between raising or reducing taxes, and rejecting the flawed special-interest driven, big government philosophy of “a thousand grants and programs that result in the addition of too few new jobs,” Rep. Oberlander will focus on transforming Pennsylvania into a statewide “opportunity zone” by fighting for the following platform of family values, fiscally conservative, and pro-growth initiatives: 

• Creating Jobs & Reducing Government Overspending: Rather than just tightening or trimming around the edges of traditional state spending plans that Pennsylvania taxpayers can no longer afford to pay, Rep. Oberlander will work hard to implement sensible limits on out-of-control state government spending, including immediately reversing the 2003 Personal Income Tax hike on small businesses and employees; reforming Pennsylvania’s business tax code, legal system and regulatory environment; and removing all other structural barriers to economic growth. 

• Making Home Ownership Permanent:   For decades, school property taxes have resulted in untold numbers of sheriff’s sales, where senior homeowners, who have in many cases already paid off their mortgages, or working families, living from paycheck to paycheck, lose their homes due to their inability to pay.   Since rebate checks and gambling revenues are clearly not solving the problem, Rep. Oberlander supports the complete elimination of school property taxes, unfunded mandates and across the board tax reform at the state, county and local government levels. Through the reduction of high taxes on both job creators and employees, hard work and honest solutions, Pennsylvania homeowners can finally realize real security and tax fairness. 

• I-80 Must Remain Toll Free:   Taxing motorists traveling on a major interstate nearly 49 cents per mile—whichamounts to a $51 round trip ticket per car and up to $400 per truck—is in no way a realistic solution to fix Pennsylvania’s broken bridges and bumpy roads.   Experts agree that the governor’s extremely flawed I-80 tolling scheme (Act 44 of 2007) is nothing short of state government, sanctioned highway robbery that will result in significant short and long-term consequences for our local and state economy—not the least of which will include higher costs for motorists, lost businesses and lost jobs. 

Pennsylvania’s crumbling infrastructure has nothing to do with a lack of funding, but instead directly results from decades of poor decision making and clumsy resource management by state leaders.  

 

Culminating in the highly suspect diversion of federal funding for much-needed highway and bridge repairs which will unfairly force rural Pennsylvania drivers to pay outlandish highway tolls to bail out Philadelphia’s and Pittsburgh’s inefficient and failing mass transit systems, Act 44 is typical old-school, Harrisburg politics engineered at the last minute by backroom, big city lobbyists with no public input, no economic input study, and absolutely no discussion with the manufacturers, trucking companies and distributors that will carry the heaviest weight of this proposed highway tax.

 

Rather than implementing new ways to paper over problems created by poor and inefficient government, Rep. Oberlander wants to reform Pennsylvania’s transportation funding bureaucracy by restoring transparency and expanding fiscal accountability.  

• Ending Pennsylvania’s Lawsuit Lottery With Real Legal Reform: Pennsylvania’s appropriately named “legal lottery” is killing our once vibrant economy “one lawsuit at a time”.   Because Representative Oberlander supports, personal responsibility—nothing more, nothing less—she will work hard to implement common sense legal reforms such as capping non-economic damages, ending Joint/Several Liability and the “Loser Pays” to encourage fair compensation for reasonable pain and suffering and discourage frivolous lawsuits. 

• Keeping Second Amendment Liberty, Second to None:   Rep. Oberlander believes in the Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear firearms without qualification or exceptions. Politicians and activist courts have neither the luxury, nor authority, to alter the crystal clear intent of our state and federal Constitutions. 

• Preserving the Sanctity of All Human Life:   More than just opposing abortion or encouraging more compassionate and life-saving alternatives such as adoption, Rep. Oberlander’s position goes well beyond “pro-life” to “whole life.”   Whether it’s elder abuse at a long-term facility or treatment of special needs children, her decisions as a state lawmaker will always be firmly grounded on the side of protecting and preserving all human life. 

• Protecting Traditional Marriage: Rep. Oberlander believes that allowing marriage to be open to individual, legislative or activist judicial interpretations is dangerous public policy.    That’s why she supports the Pennsylvania Marriage Protection Amendment, to allow Pennsylvania citizens as a whole to decide the ultimate fate of marriage.